Congress, NCP divided over compensation for slum fire victims

While the city Congress today claimed that government increased the amount of compensation for the victims of December 7 fire at Damunagar slum in suburban Kandivali due to the party's agitation, NCP termed the aid as a joke.

Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said the party workers' relay hunger strike forced the state government to hike the compensation from Rs 3,800 to Rs 25,000 per family. However, Mumbai NCP president Sachin Ahir termed the amount as "meagre" and a "joke".

In a statement, Nirupam said the devastating fire had rendered over 2,000 families homeless, but no BJP or Shiv Sena leader bothered to visit them.

The relay hunger strike by Congress forced the government to increase the compensation to Rs 25,000 per family, he claimed, adding that the government also agreed to probe the cause of the fire and accepted Congress's demand for rehabilitating the victims on the same site or nearby.

The government should waive school fees of the children from affected families, he said. Ahir, on the other hand, termed Rs 25,000 aid as "meagre". "This is like playing a cruel joke on the affected families. The government is trying to dodge the demand of on-site rehabilitation," he alleged.

Ahir demanded Rs five lakh to the kin of the deceased, Rs 1 lakh to the injured, Rs 50,000 to the affected families and permanent houses for them. Congress-NCP regime had rehabilitated the affected slum dwellers of Nargis Dutt Nagar in Bandra on the same site, he claimed.1